11 Understanding Liberty

Dr. Khushboo Mahajan and Dr. Meetu Mahajan

Introduction

Freedom is a complex concept that contains within it two basic ideas, both independent and yet interdependent. One meaning of freedom is autonomy or rightful self-government or independence in the sense of sovereign free nation states. The other meaning is the overall ability to do, choose or achieve things that can be called ‘optionality’. It is the freedom to do what one desires and wills.1 The concept of ‘Liberty’ or ‘Freedom’ denotes a very important principle of political philosophy. Liberty is sometimes regarded as the distinctive principle of liberalism, but freedom is acclaimed as universal principle. Liberty is the quality of man. It is man, as distinguished from other living beings, who demands freedom and evolves institutions to secure it. Animals, birds and insects are governed by the rule of the ‘struggle for existence’ and ‘survival of the fittest’. They have no ‘aim of life’ beyond mere existence. Man as home sapiens has distinguished himself from other living beings as he claims to have an aim in his life. Freedom is the distinctive quality of man.2The concept of liberty mainly deals with the relationship between the individual and the state in terms of the political obligation on part of the individual.

Meaning of Liberty

The term ‘liberty’ is derived from the Latin word ‘Liber’ which means free from all shackles or bonds. The liberal writers use the terms ‘Liberty’ and ‘freedom’ synonymously. The Greeks and the Romans differentiated the freedom from the slaves and the non-citizens prior to the pre-modern era. Due to his right to take part in the public affairs and shape its outcome a freeman enjoyed certain rights and privileges. During the feudalist control rarely gave the individual rights or freedom. The notion of liberty, as a political right, gained momentum in Europe with the beginning of the Renaissance movement and industrial. Revolution during the seventeenth century. The concept of liberty paved the way for the establishment of capitalism against the forces of feudalism.3

According to Hobbes, in an ideal sense, Liberty means a ‘Licence’ or a condition to do what you like. In an acceptable sense however, the term liberty means a man’s right to do what is

1 Sushila Ramaswamy, Political Theory: Ideas & Concepts, Macmillan Publishers India Ltd, Gurgaon, 2012,

p.252.

2 O.P.Gauba, An Introduction to Political Theory, 5th edition, Macmillan Publishers India Ltd, 2009, New

Delhi, p.348-349

3 Smita Srivastava, Fundamentals of Political Theory, Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi,2012,

p.101

worth doing. Social life is bound by norms and principles that make the society liveable and civilised. The distinction between right and wrong, moral and immoral, legal and illegal is marked by a set of restraints. Thus viewed, liberty is the right of a person to do what is required by him or her for the best possible development of his personality by following a course that is morally as well as legally right. Liberty is thus a relative concept and is bound by restraints of legality and morality.

Definitions of Liberty4

According to Seeley, “Liberty is the opposite over government.” According to Hobbes, “Liberty consist in absence of restraints.”

According to Mckchnie, “Freedom is not the absence of all restraints but rather the substitutions of rational ones for irrational.”

Negative and Positive Liberty

A distinction is made between positive liberty and negative liberty. The distinction is credited to Sir Isaiah Berlin, who set it out in his famous essay ‘Two concepts of liberty’ (1991).

Negative Liberty is involved in the answer to the question: ‘ What is the area within which the subject – a person or group of persons- is or should be left to do or be what he is able to do or be, without interference by other persons’?

Positive Liberty is involved in the answer to the question: ‘what or who is the source of control or interference that can determine someone to do, or be, this rather than that’?

So negative liberty is about being left alone, whereas positive liberty is about being in control of one’s life. For example, a person may be unfree to leave her home because she is under ‘house arrest’; alternatively she may be unfree to leave because she has a phobia that makes her fearful to leaving. In that makes her fearful of leaving. In the first case, she is negatively unfree to leave, whereas in the second case she is positively unfree.5

In its negative sense, liberty can be described as ‘Absence of restraints as far as possible’. As per this view, restraints are bad because these result into curtailment of individual freedom. Therefore the restraints if any should be minimum. The fact of restraints has been accepted

4 N.D. Arora, S.S.Awasthty, “Political Theory”, Har-Anand Publications Pvt. Ltd., 2007, p.221

5 John Hoffman, Paul Graham, “Introduction to Political Theory”, Pearson Education Ltd, New Delhi, 2007,

p.40

with a sense of compulsion. A classic defender of this argument is John Stuart Mill who says, “all restraints qua restraints is an evil… leaving people to themselves is always better than controlling them.” He divides man’s action into 2 parts: self- regarding and others-regarding. The state should have no right to interfere with the liberty of a man if his action affects himself alone. Examples in this regard include profession of a religion, worshipping of a deity or reading a book. However the state may intervene in case the liberty of a person affects or harms the liberty of others. This view has been supported by F.A. Hayek also. As per him, every individual has some assured area of personal freedom with which others cannot interfere. The negative view has not been appreciated by the present day scholars.

Individual liberty needs to be reconciled with the growing authority of state. To achieve the welfare goals of the state, restraints are essential. Human actions cannot be divided into water tight forms. Man lives in a society and his actions are bound to have an impact over the environment he lives in. This means that a man’s liberty has a bearing on the liberty of others. Therefore there cannot be anything like strictly private or self regarding sphere. For example a man can not be allowed to commit suicide or read obscene literature.

There “is no side of a man’s life which is unimportant to the society, for whatever he is, does, or thinks may affect his own well being, which is and ought to be a matter of common concern, and may also directly or indirectly affects the thought, actions and character of those with whom he comes into contact.”6

T.H. Green has contributed to the positive aspect of the meaning of liberty. Green defines liberty as a positive power of doing or enjoying something that is worth doing or worth enjoying in common with others. The liberty of an individual should be considered in relation to the norms of a society because man is a social creature. In this context, Barker says, “Liberty can only be liberty for this good will; it can only be liberty for the pursuit of objects which such a will presents to itself. It is, therefore, no negative absence of restraints any more than the beauty is the absence of ugliness. Inhering as it does in the good will and in that will only, it is not a power of pursuing any and every object, but a power of pursuing those objects which the good will presents to itself.”7

L. T. Hobhouse, Liberalism (London: Williams and Norgate, 1911).

6 Hobhouse, L.T.( 1911)Liberalism, p.65, Williams and Norgate: London. 77 Barker(1956),Political thought in

England(1848-1914):, p. 24: London

The meaning of liberty involves both sides of man’s existence i.e. individual and social. Regulations are a stipulation in social life and therefore the idea of liberty has also been bound with the necessity of suitable restraints. Liberty thus assumes a derivative value arising from the supreme value of moral personality acting and developing its values as such. The liberty which the state upholds and makes a principle of its action must be a liberty relative to and therefore regulated by the nature of such a personality. In this regard, Professor Leo Strauss says, “There is no relation of man to man in which man is absolutely free to act as he pleases or as it suits him…. By virtue of this rationality, man has latitude of alternatives such as no earthly being has…. the sense of the latitude of this freedom is accompanied by a sense that the full and unrestrained exercise of that freedom is not right. Man’s freedom is accompanied by a sacred awe, by a kind of divination that not everything is permitted. Restraint is, therefore, as natural or as primeval as freedom”.8

While the negative view of liberty disfavours the case of restraints as far as possible, the positive view appreciates the system of reasonable restraints in the name of societal good. Mill and Hayek subscribe to the negative view whereas Green and Strauss subscribe to the positive view. Professor Isaiah Berlin has his different interpretation involving both sides as the real meaning of liberty. He says that the negative and the positive liberty can not be separated from each other.

Scope of Liberty

The problem of liberty involves the adjustment of claims between individual and society. The state is the instrument or agency for regulating their relations. If the claim of the individual is stretched to an extreme in utter disregard of the interest of society, liberty would be reduced to ‘License’. On the other hand, if liberty of the individual is increasingly restricted in the supposed interest of society, the result would be an unconditional submission to authority, hense the loss of liberty.9

8 Strauss(1965); Natural Right and History, pp. 129-30 ,University of Chicago Press: London.

9 Smita Srivastava, Fundamentals of Political Theory, Pearson Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 2012,p.108

Interface between Authority, Liberty and License

Liberty and Authority

While enjoying liberty, it automatically becomes the duty of an individual to respect the liberty of others. An individual’s liberty should not become an obstruction in the enjoyment of others liberty. Authority regulates the individual liberty by stipulating certain rules in the society. In the words of John Locke, ‘Where there is no law, there is no freedom’. Authority is required not only for the existence of liberty, but also is necessary to restrict liberty. Authority acts as a restraint on free choices of some sections of society. Authority can be restricted by means of rule of law, periodic election, separation of power between the legislature, executive and judiciary, an independent judiciary and public opinion.10

Liberty and Licence

When liberty is interpreted as the absence or removal of all restraints on the actions of individual in utter disregard of the interest of other individuals, liberty degenerates into licence. Such a condition is not compatible with the maintenance of liberty itself. In that case, one man’s liberty would become another’s constraint or oppression; liberty of the strong

10Smita Srivastava, Fundamentals of Political Theory, Pearson Pvt. Ltd; New Delhi, 2012,p.109

would amount to the suppression of the swallow the smaller one, and there would be a still larger fish to swallow the former.11

If freedom is not to become a prerogative of a single individual or for that matter of a group of individual, it must be regulated in such a very that none shall use his freedom so as to destroy the freedom of others.

Freedom of Thought and Expression

Even if a person finds himself alone in expressing an opinion he should, according to Mill, be free to express it if all mankind, minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were at the contrary opinion, mankind would no more be justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Mill has a neat defence of this claim.

If the opinion is false then the humanity again loses, because if the opinion is false it will be shown to be so, but its expression is useful, for it forces us to restate the reasons for our beliefs. “A competition of ideas is healthy”.12

J.S Mill on Liberty:-

John Stuart Mill is one of the greatest exponents of negative liberty. He lived at a time when the functions of state were increasing manifold. Mill saw this expansion with suspicion anda threat to the freedom of individuals. The importance of Mill lies in his refusal to compromise with individual’s liberty.

According to Mill, individual’s activities are divided into two parts-self-regarding and other-regarding. Self regarding activities are exclusive his concern which do not affect others, while in other-regarding activities individual has to interact with others. In the self-regarding sphere like choosing a career, there should not be any control. He says,” In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is of right, absolute over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign”.13

11 O.P.Gauba, An Introduction to Political Theory, 5th edition, Macmillan Publishers India Ltd; 2009, New

Delhi,p.349-350

12John Hoffman, Paul Graham, “Introduction to Political Theory”, Pearson Education Ltd, New Delhi, 2007,

p.243.

13N.D. Arora, S.S.Awasthty, “Political Theory”, Har-Anand Publications, New Delhi, p.226

Introduction

Meaning of Liberty

Definitions of Liberty4

According to Seeley, “Liberty is the opposite over government.” According to Hobbes, “Liberty consist in absence of restraints.”

Sushila Ramaswamy, Political Theory: Ideas & Concepts, Macmillan Publishers India Ltd, Gurgaon, 2012, p.252.
O.P.Gauba, An Introduction to Political Theory, 5th edition, Macmillan Publishers India Ltd, 2009, New Delhi, p.348-349
Smita Srivastava, Fundamentals of Political Theory, Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd, New
N.D. Arora, S.S.Awasthty, “Political Theory”, Har-Anand Publications Pvt. Ltd., 2007, p.221

Liberty and Rights

The idea of liberty is integrally linked to the idea of the rights. It is the due enforcement of the rights which ensures the availability of legitimate freedom to the subjects of the state. As the rights cannot be absolute, similarly, the liberty has to be seen within the political and social framework which puts a limit over it. The purpose of the state is no more confined to maintenance of law and order, it is also concerned with the welfare of its subjects and creation of an atmosphere where each subject gets opportunities to fulfil its creative spirit and develops an intellectual fervour. Thus the idea of liberty is essentially concerned with the creation and preservation of an atmosphere in which an individual may seek the best possible development of his personality.

To know that where the liberty should be located and to whom it should be assigned we need to learn about rights. Moral and legal rights have strong relationship with liberty. Liberty is assigned to the people according to their moral and legal rightists place, time and quantity is determined by these rights. Ones right is understood as others duty. It means that one should respect the rights of others. Rights given to a person in a particular society also include freedom of action that is civil liberty and a code of justice within that society. Thus, the idea of liberty relies on moral and legal theory of rights.14

Civil libertarians believe that civil liberty involves obedience to rules of justice that distributes certain basic rights such as natural rights and human rights.

Locke talked about civil liberty in his “Second treatise on Government”

“where there is no law, there is no freedom…..freedom is not, as we are told by Filmer

and Hobbes, a liberty for everyman top do what he lists…..but a liberty to dispose, and order

as he lists, his person, actions, possessions, and his whole property, within the allowance of those laws under which he is, and therein not to be subject to the arbitrary will of another, but freely follow his own.” (1690 para57)

He says that civil liberty depends upon positive laws such as legal rights which are made by the consent of the citizens where as natural liberty depends upon laws of nature which includes basic rights and duties. According to Locke’s ‘Contract Theory’ civil liberty

14Jonathan Riley(2008) ‘liberty’ in McKinnon, Catriona (2008)(ed) Issues in Political Theory ( pp103-125): Oxford University Press.

must be commensurate with natural liberty. Legal rights must be in sync with basic natural rights. So the government must make such laws distributing legal rights in order to protect basic natural rights. According to Mill’s ‘Utilitarianism’, civil rights are based on general welfare. According to Berlin’s ‘Ethical Pluralism’ civil rights are grounded on plural incredible values that may conflict. But these theories do agree that civil liberty lies in set of basic rights. The society which does not recognise them is considered as unfit for human beings. For any given ethical theory of rights civil liberty is equivalent to restriction of liberty.15

Locke says,

“The freedom then of man, and liberty of acting according to his own will, is grounded on his having reason, which is able to instruct him in that law he is to govern himself by, and make him know how far he is left to the freedom of his own will.” (1690, para 63)

For a reasonable individual, liberty is valued as liberty associated with basic rights for his or her fellow citizens.

Summary

Liberty is a powerful ideology that requires certain institutional device like the democracy, press and government as well as constitutionalism.

Otherwise, it may be appealing as a theory, but in practice the people may not enjoy the freedom that is essential to develop the freedom to religion and freedom to enjoy constitutionally guaranteed rights.16

Liberty can be defined as the positive power of doing and enjoying those things which are worthy of enjoyment. Liberty is essential to develop one’s faculties. Individuals while enjoying their liberty should not restrain the liberty of other individuals. The state, though its laws, can create and enforce liberty oh the individual.

There are two concepts of liberty: (i) negative and (ii) positive. Negative liberty means absence of obstacles, barriers, constraints or interference from others. According to positive liberty, the freedom of choice can be meaningful and can be

15Ibid. pp103-125

16 Smita Srivastava, An Introduction to Political Ideologies, Pearson Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 2012, p.36

practically effective if there are opportunities to act. It depends on the absence of impediments over and above the simple coercion.17

‘The Freedom of Expression’ is not as ‘simple’ as mill suggests, and to address the complexities of freedom as it has discussed further liberty-limiting principles: harm to self, offensiveness, harmless wrongdoing.18 Freedom is certainly regarded as a ‘positive’ word and this may reflect an underlying belief not just of political theorists, but also ‘ordinary people’ that although freedom must on occasion be limited we assume freedom to be a good thing-there is a ‘presumption in favour of freedom’.

17Smita Srivastava, Fundamentals of Political Theory, p.109
18 John Hoffman, Paul Graham, “Introduction to Political Theory”, Pearson Education Ltd, New Delhi, 2007,

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Learn More (supporting material)

Berlin, I.(1969) ‘Four Essays on Liberty’, in Hardy(ed.) Isaiah Berlin: Liberty Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mill, John Stuart (1860). On Liberty (2 ed.). London: John W.Parker & Son.
Miller, D.(2006) The Liberty Reader, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Riley, J. (2007) Mill’s Radical Liberalism, London:Routledge.
Carter, I., Kramer, M.H. Steiner, H. (2006) Freedom: A Philosophical Anthology, Oxford:Blackwell.
O.P.Gauba, An Introduction to Political Theory, 5th edition, Macmillan Publishers India Ltd; 2009, New Delhi,
John Hoffman, Paul Graham, “Introduction to Political Theory”, Pearson Education Ltd, New Delhi, 2007,
N.D. Arora, S.S.Awasthty, “Political Theory”, Har-Anand Publications, New Delhi.
Strauss(1965); Natural Right and History, pp. 129-30 ,University of Chicago Press: London.